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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 17 Jul 2022, 18:06
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himanshu0123
1. ''a billion dollars more than they had predicted just two months ago''
This phrase is a flexible modifer or absolute phrase becasue it has no main verb. We have a noun+ dependent clause linked with the conjunction 'THAN'.

Is my understanding correct here?
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Yes, your understanding is correct. (I had to Google 'flexible modifier')

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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 20 Jul 2022, 02:09
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vv65

Hi, could you please elaborate on incorrect usage of 'IT'. Can 'IT' refer to singular phrase instead of just a single word? For e,g- 'gap of 3.7 billion''


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himanshu0123

2. option D v/s E

Aren't we clear about the timeline as in which event happened when by the time marker ''2 months ago'' So why are we using past perfect. Simple past in choice E should also be fine?
D) more than they had predicted
E) more than they predicted it

Simple past would work in D. Past perfect works too. Past perfect may not be essential here, but it isn't wrong.

The problem in E is not the tense but the phrasing, more specifically the IT. The IT in E makes E unacceptable.

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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 20 Jul 2022, 09:32
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himanshu0123
...could you please elaborate on incorrect usage of 'IT'. Can 'IT' refer to singular phrase instead of just a single word? For e,g- 'gap of 3.7 billion''
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Yes, 'IT' can refer to a singular phrase.

Quote:
...they believe the gap will be $3.7 billion, a billion dollars over what it was predicted just two months ago.
A) over what it was predicted
B) over the prediction from
C) more than it was predicted
D) more than they had predicted
E) more than they predicted it
Show more
When we say 'a billion dollars more than X', then X must refer to a quantity.

In Option E, X is 'they predicted it'.
Here X cannot refer to a quantity; 'they predicted it' is a statement.

In Option D, X is 'they had predicted'.
Here X can refer to a quantity (with some words elided). We can take X to mean '(the amount) they had predicted' or '(what) they had predicted'.

Hope this helps to clarify what is wrong with E.

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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 25 Jul 2022, 04:20
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option D v/s E. Please review my understanding below.

D) more than they had predicted

x is more than Y. Both X and Y should refer to a quantity. What they had predicted- THE GAP (implied)

when we say X is more than Y. Shouldn't X and Y either both be nouns or clauses. Here in both the given choices- 'Y' is a clause.

E) more than they predicted it
???here IT refers to gap only which was to be assumed in option D.
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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 25 Jul 2022, 04:47
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option D v/s E. Please review my understanding below.

D) more than they had predicted

x is more than Y. Both X and Y should refer to a quantity. What they had predicted- THE GAP (implied)

when we say X is more than Y. Shouldn't X and Y either both be nouns or clauses. Here in both the given choices- 'Y' is a clause.

E) more than they predicted it
???here IT refers to gap only which was to be assumed in option D.
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While OG mentions that "they predicted it" is unidiomatic, I see this as more of a redundancy issue, since "it" is just not required here.

Easier way to eliminate E is on the basis of tenses; since prediction happened before the announcement, past perfect tense ("had predicted") is an appropriate usage.
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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 27 Jul 2022, 09:59
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Anshul1223333

D) more than they had predicted

x is more than Y. Both X and Y should refer to a quantity. What they had predicted- THE GAP (implied)

when we say X is more than Y. Shouldn't X and Y either both be nouns or clauses. Here in both the given choices- 'Y' is a clause.
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Before we look at choice D, I want to make sure you understand one grammar point that allows a straightforward elimination of E (and C): The second half of a comparison can't be a complete sentence all by itself. Something, in other words, needs to be missing from an entire standalone sentence to make the second half of a comparison.

This fact is obvious if the second half of a comparison is just a noun, or a prepositional phrase, or some other single grammatical piece. But even if it's a clause, it still can't stand alone as a whole sentence.

E.g., this is a correctly written sentence:
Last year the charity gave $500,000 more to the needy than it received from donors.
"It received from donors" is a clause with a subject and a verb—but it's NOT a whole sentence by itself, because "received" would need an object to make it so. (That object, therefore, is the thing I'm calling 'missing from a whole sentence' in this example.)

"It was predicted" in C and "they predicted it" in E, on the other hand, are whole grammatical sentences all by themselves. (The pronouns would need antecedents somewhere, but the presence/absence of an antecedent for a pronoun doesn't affect grammatical structure.) Therefore, neither of them can be the second half of a comparison, so C and E have incorrectly written comparisons.
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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 27 Jul 2022, 10:03
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Now, regarding choice D:

There's a whole class of comparisons, including the type in choice D, that don't have grammatically parallel parts because they can't. These are largely comparisons between /1/ a factual observation and /2/ some more abstract version of that same observation—e.g., what somebody believes, or what's considered usual or normal, or what was estimated, etc.
E.g., all of the following sentences are correctly written:
On football game days, there is much more traffic than usual on the highway near the stadium.
Sonya ran the 400-meter dash faster than anyone had thought possible.
Administration officials announced that the budget gap was larger than they had anticipated.

You don't need to know how to write sentences like these, but you do need to be able to recognize them as legitimate. (When these kinds of sentences appear as correct answers to GMAC's problems, the OTHER answer choices will almost always contain errors that are more concrete, more fundamental/basic, or more black-and-white than usual. 👀)
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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 13 Oct 2022, 02:41
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Dear Experts,

I'm not sure how we can safely eliminate (C).

(C) is not grammatically wrong, but (D) is just clearer than (D), right?

If I'm wrong, pls kindly help :)
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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 13 Oct 2022, 04:26
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Tanchat
Dear Experts,

I'm not sure how we can safely eliminate (C).

(C) is not grammatically wrong, but (D) is just clearer than (D), right?

If I'm wrong, pls kindly help :)
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Hello Tanchat,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the error in Option C is that it needs an infinitive verb form ("to + base form of verb" - "to + be" in its case) to complete the verb phrase "was predicted to be"; without the infinitive, the sentence fails to convey what action was predicted by the officials.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 18 Oct 2022, 07:17
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Tanchat
Dear Experts,

I'm not sure how we can safely eliminate (C).

(C) is not grammatically wrong, but (D) is just clearer than (D), right?

If I'm wrong, pls kindly help :)
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Check out this post, if you haven't already: https://gmatclub.com/forum/even-with-the-proposed-budget-cuts-and-new-taxes-and-fees-the-city-s-321754-40.html#p3017757.

And if that doesn't help, here are a couple more from even earlier in the thread:

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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 04 Dec 2022, 22:52
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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees, the city's projected deficit for the next budget year is getting worse: administration officials announced that they believe the gap will be $3.7 billion, a billion dollars over what it was predicted just two months ago.

A) over what it was predicted -> Wrong idiom

B) over the prediction from -> Wrong idiom

C) more than it was predicted -> Doesn't make sense to compare the gap to a clause (The gap was predicted). Its better to compare the gap to another gap

D) more than they had predicted -> Correct -> they believe the gap will be a billion dollars more than (the gap) they had predicted. gaps are being compared to each other

E) more than they predicted it -> Same as C
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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 02 Jan 2023, 18:20
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RonTargetTestPrep

Before we look at choice D, I want to make sure you understand one grammar point that allows a straightforward elimination of E (and C): The second half of a comparison can't be a complete sentence all by itself.
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I understand what you're saying about comparisons involving verbs that must take objects, but as you've written this, it is clearly not a grammatical rule. "My dog eats more than my cat eats" is a perfectly good sentence, and the second half of it, "my cat eats", is a complete sentence on its own. "Hemingway drank more than he ate" is a perfectly good sentence, and the part after "more than" is a stand alone sentence. "I like swimming more than I like skiing" is another example. I'm concerned test takers reading this 'rule' might incorrectly eliminate a right answer unless they understand the narrower situation you mean to limit its application to.
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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 12 Apr 2023, 04:30
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Quote:
Hi GMATNinja,

Could you please help on (D): what is omitted after "they had predicted"?

Thanks a lot!
There's nothing omitted here. Consider the following:

    Tim picked up one child from day care, one fewer than he should have picked up.

Here, "one fewer" is providing information about the verb phrase "should have picked up." It might FEEL a little funky because we're accustomed to following "picked up" with a noun, but this construction is fine -- there's nothing missing.

Same deal in (D):

Quote:
administration officials announced that they believe the gap will be $3.7 billion, a billion dollars more than they had predicted
Now "a billion dollars more" is providing information about what "they had predicted." They predicted a gap of $2.7 billion dollars. The actual gap was $3.7 billion, or a billion dollars more than they'd predicted. Not a terribly accurate prediction, but a perfectly logical sentence.

I hope that helps!
Show more





Hello GMATNinja,

I hope you are well!

Whenever I have dealt with comparisons I have been told that I need to compare 2 similar things. In this example - a billion dollars more than they had predicted two months ago - it doesn't quite make sense as to what a billion dollars is being compared to.
A billion dollars more than what they had predicted two months ago - here, billion dollars is being compared to what which can stand for the gap. Can you please help me rectify my error? Thanks!
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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 12 Apr 2023, 05:13
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GMATNinja
Quote:
Hi GMATNinja,

Could you please help on (D): what is omitted after "they had predicted"?

Thanks a lot!
There's nothing omitted here. Consider the following:

    Tim picked up one child from day care, one fewer than he should have picked up.

Here, "one fewer" is providing information about the verb phrase "should have picked up." It might FEEL a little funky because we're accustomed to following "picked up" with a noun, but this construction is fine -- there's nothing missing.

Same deal in (D):

Quote:
administration officials announced that they believe the gap will be $3.7 billion, a billion dollars more than they had predicted
Now "a billion dollars more" is providing information about what "they had predicted." They predicted a gap of $2.7 billion dollars. The actual gap was $3.7 billion, or a billion dollars more than they'd predicted. Not a terribly accurate prediction, but a perfectly logical sentence.

I hope that helps!





Hello GMATNinja,

I hope you are well!

Whenever I have dealt with comparisons I have been told that I need to compare 2 similar things. In this example - a billion dollars more than they had predicted two months ago - it doesn't quite make sense as to what a billion dollars is being compared to.
A billion dollars more than what they had predicted two months ago - here, billion dollars is being compared to what which can stand for the gap. Can you please help me rectify my error? Thanks!
Show more

Hello Anaghack,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, here the comparison is between the monetary amounts "$3.7 billion" and and what amount that the officials predicted the deficit would be; "a billion dollars more" is the comparison marker, indicating that $3.7 billion is more than the predicted amount by a billion dollars.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 08 May 2023, 14:48
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Anaghack
Hello GMATNinja,

I hope you are well!

Whenever I have dealt with comparisons I have been told that I need to compare 2 similar things. In this example - a billion dollars more than they had predicted two months ago - it doesn't quite make sense as to what a billion dollars is being compared to.

A billion dollars more than what they had predicted two months ago - here, billion dollars is being compared to what which can stand for the gap. Can you please help me rectify my error? Thanks!
Show more
Sorry for my late reply, Anaghack! We attempted to address this point in this post and this one.

Check those out and let us know if you have any-follow up questions!
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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 16 Sep 2023, 07:31
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generis
Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees, the city's projected deficit for the next budget year is getting worse: administration officials announced that they believe the gap will be $3.7 billion, a billion dollars over what it was predicted just two months ago.

A) over what it was predicted

B) over the prediction from

C) more than it was predicted

D) more than they had predicted

E) more than they predicted it


SC25540.02
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Eliminate A and C - "to be" is required after "predicted"
...(the gap/it) was predicted just two months ago.

Eliminate E - "to be" is required after "predicted it"
...more than they had predicted (the gap/it) just two months ago.

Eliminate B - comparing "billion dollars" to a "prediction" [not the predicted gap]
...billion dollars over the prediction just two months ago.

Keep C - conveys a logical sequence of events "had predicted" ---> "two months ago" ---> "announced"
...more than they had predicted just two months ago.
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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees the city's 29 Oct 2023, 19:40
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Okay this is an interesting one. A classic case that shows that SC questions can be tackled from multiple sides.

I see this one in old and has many experts views but adding my approach on this below :)

The officials announced something and a prediction was made 2 months ago. So from a tense perspective, we have a clear sense of the timeline/ sequence. Second observation is the use of 'it' which in all fairness seems confusing (is 'it' the gap or the projected deficit / prediction). Lets try to look for options w/o the pronoun usage.

generis
Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees, the city's projected deficit for the next budget year is getting worse: administration officials announced that they believe the gap will be $3.7 billion, a billion dollars over what it was predicted just two months ago.

A) over what it was predicted

B) over the prediction from

C) more than it was predicted

D) more than they had predicted . Aha, this looks good, the only referent for 'they' here is officials.

E) more than they predicted it


SC25540.02
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A billion $ more than something makes sense and not A billion $ over something (as in a physical location).

Hope this is helpful :)
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Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees, the city's projected deficit for the next budget year is getting worse: administration officials announced that they believe the gap will be $3.7 billion, a billion dollars over what it was predicted just two months ago.

A) over what it was predicted - "it" refers to "the gap." a billion over "the gap?" No. A billion dollar over $2.7 bn. So we need the amount what they predicted 2 months ago.

B) over the prediction from - No.

C) more than it was predicted - No.

D) more than they had predicted - ok

E) more than they predicted it - "it" is redundant. We need "had"because we have 2 past events - "announced" and "predicted."
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